Health Insurance - Research Paper Example

Health Insurance Introduction Matters of health care are quite crucial in the economy of any country. The government must make sure that its citizens have the best option in terms of health. Over the past few years, statistics show a rise in health insurance costs of US economy…

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This calls for government intervention in health insurance costs to yield lower rates and better services. This paper discusses the reasons why government should be directly involved in health insurance. A recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund on health involving industrialised nations rated America in the lowest rank. According to Davis, Schoen, and Stremikis, “In July 2008, the Commission released the second National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, which ranked the nation’s performance on 37 indicators, 11 of which were based on international comparisons” (Davis, Schoen, and Stremikis). The parameters used in this survey include equality of health outcomes across its population, fairness of financial contributions, and patient responsiveness. The current health insurance system is financed by employers as a benefit to their employees. Low and middle-income earners do not get these benefits from employers and since they cannot afford from their mean salaries, they remain uninsured. Government involvement in health insurance will see to it that all its citizens can access it. Further analysis of the US health insurance costs problem reveals that most of the funds contributed by companies and individuals get into the hands of the administrators. This means that a lesser percentage than expected of these contributions go into actual health care of these individuals. This leaves the individuals who participate in this programme paying very high costs that do not match up the care given. Government involvement in a health insurance programme will allow it to have an added advantage to bargain better prices of drugs and services. The administration costs will no longer be there and reduced drug costs will make the prices of insurance to go down. In addition, single payer systems through government involvement will enable the government to hold down costs as it covers the entire population. Canada is a very good example of a state that uses the single payer system efficiently. According to Segal’s Health Care Reform Journal, “In 2006, the U.S. spent $6,714 per capita” without covering all its citizens, “while Canada … spent $3,678” with universal coverage” (Clemmitt). America should learn from such states and involve the government. Government involvement in health care insurance will make it possible to track all the activities in the health system. The government will have no choice, therefore, than to give the best medical care in the world. To safeguard financial stability of this system with the government in it, citizens must enrol to prevent issues of people who do not sign up until they are sick. Some costs go up because of advanced technology that prolongs the lives of individuals who have terminal illnesses. For example, cancer patients live for six months longer with the help of some machines. According to Callahan as quoted in Health Care Reform Journal, “We will have to learn better how to live with that reality, to understand that limits to health care are necessary. We cannot afford endlessly expensive progress. Concretely, that means we will have to accept rationing” (Clemmitt). Since most insurers are out to make profits rather than to offer best medical care, government involvement will change this. Buyers will have another choice of insurance plan, which is government run and this will keep off non-genuine private insurers. However,
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This research will begin with the statement that a healthy lifestyle can be attained by any person regardless of their race, ethnicity or current health problems. If given a choice, many people chose not to live a healthy lifestyle. Many people feel that to live healthy is too expensive, takes too much time and does not provide them with many incentives.

Summary of the types of quality tests that should be conducted.………....4 V. Summary of the areas of the application to be tasted………………………5 VI. Summary of the artifacts required for the testing process………………….6 a. Test case………………………………………………….…………6 b.

This is a phenomenon which is used practically all over the globe in almost every genre of business. Insurance companies are entities that provide insurance to individuals and other companies. These parties receive disbursements against losses incurred and they get financial protection from the insurance companies.

E-Health is a newly emerging field which is rapidly leading towards the improvement of health care in the developing countries. Gunther Eysenbach has defined eHealth as “an emerging field in the intersection of medical informatics, public health and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies” (Gunther).

Owing to transformation of medical records from paper system to electronic structure, the risk of access of people’s health information by other parties increased thus the need to execute laws for protecting such information. It deals with the use and exposure of a person’s heath information.

The Health Insurance company I chose was TRICARE or formally known as CHAMPUS. This is also a part of Medicare programs in a general sense. This program is primarily for military families. It is now available to civilians as well.

Blue cross was a hospital care program that was formed in 1934 by E.A Van Steenwyk. It s main purposes was to act as a unifying force for hospital care program. Conversely, commercial insurance helps businesses and organization to protect them against unforeseen risk that might lead to loss or cause harm for the business (Stevens, 2003).

One of the problems with the American health care system is that it is mostly owned and operated by the private sector. The public sector input into health care covers programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance

According to the report the government named the program the SCHIP. The program gets its funding from both the federal government and respective states. The federal government has laid down guidelines on how to run the program. Since the program’s establishment, the federal government had disbursed big money in support of the program.